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For decades, scholars have sought to understand why citizens join political parties and what influence can be achieved through party membership. Whether we think of political parties as grassroots or hierarchical organizations, individual members have important roles to play–as leaders, activists and political elites, as campaigners and foot-soldiers, as those who select personnel and formulate policy, or as those who simply provide legitimacy to the party by virtue of having signed up to the cause. Despite the prominence of theoretical models such as the mass and cartel parties, which prompt us to think about party membership in certain ways, the experience of membership is diverse. Not everyone participates; and not everyone participates in the same way. Some accounts of membership–often those presented by the parties themselves–paint the role of members as important intermediaries between citizens and …